LAC's Aurora Shines

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has launched Aurora, a new interface to access LAC’s published holdings. It replaces AMICUS, technologically outdated after 20 years service.

Use Aurora to explore LAC’s collection of newspapers, magazines, Canadian official publications, theses, monographs, maps, music, and more. Searching this web interface is free in Canada and internationally. Registered LAC users will be able to order materials online for consultation at 395 Wellington.

Confused with Voilà, Canada’s National Union Catalogue. Voilà is made up of bibliographic descriptions and location information for published materials held at libraries across Canada, including LAC. Use Voilà to search the combined catalogues of these Canadian libraries. Voilà covers all subject areas and formats, including printed books, computer files, sound recordings, videos, maps, microforms, newspapers, and works in large print and Braille.

From the LAC home page mouse over "Search the Collection" and select "Library Search" from the drop down. Choosing either Aurora or Voilà brings up a simple clean search box with option for an Advanced Search. Results can be filtered by criteria in a panel on the left hand side.

A search for genealogy found 142,388 results in Voilà and 25,589 results in Aurora.

In a brief trial I found the system to be very responsive, much better than AMICUS.